West Ham are reportedly keen to bring Barcelona’s Alex Song in on loan (Picture: Getty Images)

Despite a disappointing penalty shoot-out loss to Sheffield United in the Capital One Cup second round earlier this week, the start to West Ham’s season has been particularly impressive; the future looks bright. The team appears to be embracing the more attacking style forced upon Sam Allardyce this summer, and it’s been effective.

For the first time in a long time I can look at our squad and see no glaring weaknesses. The squad looks deep in most areas, especially in the forward areas (finally). It’s balanced and comfortable, no more so in midfield, which brings me to the glaring question: Why are the club looking to bring in an established midfielder to disrupt it?

West Ham are in talks to sign former Arsenal midfielder Alex Song from Barcelona. #WHUFC#FCB

Sky Sports are reporting that West Ham are ‘in talks’ to sign the former Arsenal midfielder on loan for the 2014/15 season. Song has found it hard to settle in at Barcelona, finding game time hard to come by with the Spanish giants having a wealth of talent at his position.

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Song is keen on a return to the Premier League, with both Tottenham and Liverpool reportedly keen on signing the Cameroon international, but it’s West Ham who lead the race, and I’m not quite sure why.

He is a classy player, always has been, but he doesn’t add anything to the team that we necessarily need. Cheikhou Kouyate, summer signing from Anderlecht, has been a revelation for the team. His performances thus far have been outstanding, as has Mark Noble, but we come to expect that from him every week.

Song will play the same role in the team as Kouyate – pressing from deep, putting opponents under pressure, breaking up play. His ability to cover at centre back shouldn’t go unnoticed, but since we need cover at centre back with the injuries we have at the moment it makes more sense to bring a natural defender in, which is what we have been looking to do also.

Manchester City’s Micah Richards and Bayer Leverkusen’s Phillipp Wollscheid have both been linked with the club in recent days, as has Rennes defender Jean-Armel Kana-Biyik, who has been reportedly training with the club and is available for a fee of £1.5million.

The problem with signing Song is that he isn’t a 19-year-old prospect who will be content with playing a bit-part role in the squad rotation over the course of a season. He is a 26-year old who has played for some of the world’s most prestigious clubs, and will look to start each and every week which in my opinion wouldn’t be in our interest considering how impressive the Noble-Kouyate tandem has been.

My advice, Big Sam, leave Song alone this summer. He doesn’t fill any holes in the team, he just adds another five digits to your weekly wage bill and another mouth to feed in terms of game time in an already crowded midfield.